Compendio de lo sucedido en el Iapon desde la fundacion de aquella Christiandad.

Y relacion de los martires que padecieron estos años de 1629 y 30. Sacada de las cartas que escrivieron los Padres de la Compañia que alli assisten. Madrid : en la Imprenta del Reyno, 1633. Quarto (200 x 150 mm), contemporary limp vellum; [10], 43, [1 colophon] leaves; title with woodcut Jesuit device; text in Spanish; some marginal water staining to fore-edges of preliminary leaves and occasional browning; a very good copy, housed in a handsome quarter morocco clamshell box.

An utterly rare history of Christianity in Japan from the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in 1549 to the persecutions and martyrdoms carried out in the early phase of the Tokugawa shogunate, following the ban of Christianity in 1614. It is based on the eyewitness accounts contained in the letters written by Jesuit missionaries. The dedication, which is addressed to Cesare Monti, the Italian Cardinal acting as extraordinary Nuncio to the Kingdom of Spain, is signed by the Portuguese Jesuit Matías de Sosa (i.e. Sousa), Procurator General in Madrid, and is dated 2 December 1633.

De Sousa was born in Amarante in 1598. After teaching at the College of Coimbra, he travelled to India; upon his return, he served as procurator in Madrid, then as rector of the College of Santarém, and later as procurator elected by the province of Portugal to represent it in Rome. He died in Lisbon in 1647. The Compendio de lo sucedido en el Iapon is his only published work.

Palau 319889

No sale record in the Rare Book Hub database.